Skill Shop

Skills are obtained at the Skill Shop, which becomes unlocked in the City upon completing the Skill Shop Mini Adventure. They are bought with tokens. At first, only three skills can be bought at the Skill Shop; however, as you raise your drinking stat, more skills will become unlocked at the Skill Shop, in groups of three. Each unlocked skill group costs more tokens, but has better special effects in battle. At 500 drinking, all 33 skills at the Skill Shop become unlocked. You can only have up to 999 of each skill at any time.

Due to HoboArena's lack of tokens, theres is no Skill Shop on that version. Because of this difference, you simply obtain skills via consuming non-mixed drinks on HoboArena. All other aspects of the skills are shared between all versions on HoboWars.

Mechanics

Upon buying a skill, it becomes placed in your Skill Repository on the Skills page, which is accessible through the Living Area and the "Skills" side bar link. From there, skills can be "set" into a skill slot. In order for a skill to be fired, it must be placed into a skill slot. Also, as you raise your drinking stat, you will unlock more skill slots, up to nine maximum at 400 drinking. Once a skill is placed into a skill slot, it can be dragged up and down into other skill slot positions, that is, if you have more than one skill slot. The skill in the first skill slot will fire first, the skill in the second skill slot will fire second, and so on; basically, they are used in the order you place them. You cannot set the same skill in multiple skill slots. Once you are done arranging your skills, click the "Set Order" button to save your skill arrangement. Leaving a skill slot blank will not cause a "pause" in between skill firing, so make sure you take advantage of all of your skill slots!

In battle, skills automatically fire at set intervals, which are determined by your BAC. The higher your BAC, the earlier your skills will fire. Usually, skills fire every 20 or so rounds. Once a skill is fired, it becomes used up and disappears, so, make sure your skills are always well-stocked! Also, each skill will only fire once during battle; once all of the skills in your skill slots are fired, you will not fire any more skills for the remaining duration of the battle.

The special effects of skills vary from skill to skill; some skills buff your stats, some lower your opponent's stats, some heal you, some damage your opponent, and some do something entirely unique.

If you are a donator, you can save the current skill lineup you have as a named Skill Set and switch to it when desired. You can have up to five saved Skill Sets at any time. If your donator status goes away, you will not have access to your saved Skill Sets.

If you have the Cabana Club Card special item from Bernard's Mansion active, your opponent's skills will miss 25% of the time.

The following is a comprehensive table of certain drinking stat intervals and the skill-related benefits they provide:

List of Skills

There are 49 skills present in the game.

The following is a list of all them, as well as information pertaining to their costs, special effects, and unlock criterion. The skills on HoboArena are gained through consuming certain drinks instead of requiring purchase or unlocking.

* The Cripple and Takedown skills used during a UFC fight DO count towards the damage dealt and damage received totals.** These NPCs are only available on HoboArena.*** These skills are used by NPCs and cannot be obtained by players.

Advanced Strategies and Information

The following section discusses advanced skill-related strategies and information.

Extended Skill Information

Average

When Average is fired, it averages all of your opponent's stats for 10 rounds, but over those 10 rounds, their stats gradually return to normal.

BAC-Boosting Skills

Jello Shot and Keg Stand do not stack with each other. If Keg Stand is fired sometime after Jello Shot, the BAC boost from Keg Stand replaces the BAC boost from Jello Shot, and if Jello Shot is fired sometime after Keg Stand, the BAC boost from Jello Shot replaces the BAC boost from Keg Stand.

Buff Rat

Charm Rat

When Charm Rat is fired, it has a 20% chance of charming your opponent's rat to turn on its owner and attack him/her, a 20% chance of charming your opponent's rat to distract itself and not attack you, and a 60% chance of not charming your opponent's rat at all.

Concentration

When Concentration is fired, your current net stat buffs gained during are doubled. Concentration doesn't affect your net stat buffs if they are at or below 0%.

Additionally, Concentration affects Leap. However, in order for it to, Leap needs to be active until Concentration is fired, meaning that your opponent has to not attack you during that time, or else Leap will be used, and your active Leap chance won't be doubled when Concentration is fired.

Damaging Skills

Double Punch, Triple Punch, Quad Punch, Quint Punch, Drain, Double Drain, Triple Drain are affected by stat-buffing skills and status effects, and can score both drunken and Animal-Style critical hits. However, they are unaffected by the Can Cannon's damage multiplier.

The damage both Takedown and Cripple do is independent from any damage bonuses provided by skills, status effects, equipment, and combat stats. The two skills, if they manage to hit, simply halve your opponent's remaining health.

Double Punch, Triple Punch, Quad Punch, Quint Punch, Drain, Double Drain, Triple Drain, Takedown, and Cripple can all be drunkenly dodged. They can also be dodged with the help of the skill Leap.

Leap

When Leap is fired, you will dodge your opponent's next attack, even if your opponent's next attack is a skill.

In addition to causing your opponent's next attack to miss, Leap also has a 33⅓% chance of causing your opponent to crash into the ground and take damage. The damage your opponent receives from crashing into the ground is the damage you would have received from your opponent's attack if it didn't miss because of Leap.

Paralyze

When Paralyze is fired, it creates a counter of 30 rounds. Every turn of the player who launched the Paralyze skill decreases the counter by 1. Every blocked attack attempt of the paralyzed player decreases the counter by 6. Every blocked skill fire attempt of the paralyzed player decreases the counter by 11. Once the counter reaches 0, the paralyzed player returns to normal.

Blocked skill fire attempts of a paralyzed player are delayed, not skipped.

Stat-Buffing Skills

Stat buffs all stack with each other. (Examples: Sprint, Strengthen, Empower, Mighty, and Champion') They simply get added together, so the order in which they are fired doesn't really matter.

The stat reductions are based on the target's base combat stats. Combat stat bonuses from status effects and equipment are not affected by these skills.

Tiebreaker

If Tiebreaker is fired by both players in a battle, the second player to fire it has a shot at getting the tiebreak if the first player to fire it fails to get it. If the first player to fire it gets the tiebreak, then the second player to fire it can't get it no matter what.

Yoink

When Yoink is fired, it steals your opponent's status effect for the battle and subtracts 10 minutes from that status effect's remaining duration, giving those 10 minutes of that status effect to you after the battle ends.

Recommended Skill Sets

For those of who haven't unlocked all 33 skills yet, replace Keg Stand with Jello Shot, Champion and Peon with Mighty and Sissify (respectively), Cripple with Takedown, Triple Drain with Double Drain, and Quint Punch and Quad Punch with Triple Punch and Double Punch (respectively).

All-Purpose

Keg Stand

Defend

Champion

Concentration

Peon

Heal More

Cripple/Quint Punch

Heal/Debuff/Yoink

Takedown/Quad Punch

A general, all-purpose skill set. Combines offense and defense.

General Offense

Cripple

Keg Stand

Champion

Concentration

Peon

Quint Punch

Quad Punch

Triple Drain

Triple Punch

A skill set that aims to hit fast and hard.

General Defense

Keg Stand

Defend

Champion

Concentration

Peon

Heal More

Paralyze

Heal

Tiebreaker

A skill set that prepares for the worst and tries to make you hold out for as long as possible in hope of a tie and a possible tiebreak.

Rat-Heavy Offense

Buff Rat

Keg Stand

Champion

Concentration

Charm Rat/Takedown/Quint Punch

Peon

Cripple/Quad Punch

Paralyze

Heal More

A skill set with a focus on boosting your rat first if it's going to be dealing the most damage in the fight.

Anti-Buff

Yoink

Keg Stand

Champion

Concentration

Peon

Debuff

Triple Drain

Heal More

Cripple/Quad Punch/Average

A skill set designed to counter skills and status effects.

Hobosaurus Rex Raids

Keg Stand

Champion

Concentration

Quint Punch

Quad Punch

Triple Drain

Triple Punch

Double Drain

Double Punch

A skill set designed to optimize the damage done against Hobosaurus Rex in gang raids.